New hope in 1980s homicide

Jul. 12, 2013

Benny Scruggs

How to help

Authorities ask that anyone who knew Benny Scruggs or who has any information concerning his1985 stabbing death contact authorities. Wisconsin Rapids Police Detective Andy Dewitt can be reached at 715-421-6217. Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation Special Agent David Forsythe can be reached at 715-359-7112.

Other open local unsolved homicides

Eleanore RobertsOn Nov. 27 1984, Marshall Roberts found his mother’s body in the bathroom of her Saratoga home near Wisconsin Rapids. Authorities said someone stabbed and beat Eleanore Roberts to death. Recently, Wood County Investigator-Sgt. Jay Shroda served a search warrant for DNA on the man authorities have long thought was responsible for Eleanore Roberts’ homicide. Shroda is confident the Roberts family and the community will soon see an arrest in the case. Stephanie VanDenBergOn Oct. 16, 1990, Stephanie VanDenBerg, 17, accepted a ride from a man following a party in Pittsville. Her family reported her missing the next day when she didn’t return home. On May 24, 1991, authorities found VanDenBerg’s unclothed body in Clark County’s Sherwood Lake. Investigators think the teenager might have been the victim of a sexual assault. Authorities recently used advanced DNA testing on evidence in the case, Wood County Investigator-Sgt. Jay Shroda said, and investigators hope to soon file charges. Deidre WeekA hit-and-run driver struck and killed Deidre Week, the 11-year-old daughter of David and Brenda Week, at about 6:15 p.m. March 24, 1995, while she was riding her bicycle north on Highway HH, near her Vesper home. At about 6:45 p.m., authorities received a 911 call about the crash, and emergency personnel flew the child to Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield. She was pronounced dead at 7:34 p.m. The family and Wood County Sheriff’s Department brought in the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation to help with the case. The Week family took a petition of about 2,500 signatures requesting the state’s aid in the investigation to then-Attorney General James Doyle. In January 2001, the Sheriff’s Department had more than 700 reports on the case, filling four large three-ring binders. The reports represented six years of work following numerous leads. Many suspects were given polygraph tests. Deidre’s family has kept her in the hearts and minds of the community by placing and maintaining a billboard on Highway 13 asking people for information about Deidre’s death. Deidre HarmWitnesses reported last seeing Deidre Harm just before midnight June 10, 2006, at the Finish Line in Wisconsin Rapids. She left the tavern with an unidentified man and went to the Body Shop in Wisconsin Rapids, where witnesses saw them sitting with a man and a woman. Harm never returned home, and she was listed as missing until a hunter found her remains in a wooded area in Seneca during the gun deer hunting season in November 2006. In August 2009, Christopher E. Revak, a 1990 Lincoln High School graduate, took his own life in a Missouri jail. Revak was in jail on a second-degree murder charge for the 2007 death of Rene Marie Williams in Missouri. Shortly after Revak’s death, a central Wisconsin resident contacted local authorities with a suggestion they check him out in connection with the investigation of Harm’s death. Authorities know Revak was in Wisconsin Rapids when Harm went missing. They also confirmed he was in the same establishments as Harm the night she disappeared. Investigators hope they can find the final pieces that will prove Revak was the person responsible for Harm’s death so they can give closure to her family.

Benny Scruggs was asleep in his bed when someone plunged a knife into his chest.

Authorities say Scruggs, a 28-year-old baker from Wisconsin Rapids, died of a single stab wound to his lung as he lay on his back shortly before 3 a.m. July 17, 1985.

Scruggs’ wife, Yvonne, who had been sleeping in their son’s room, found Scruggs’ body and called a neighbor. The neighbor contacted police at 3:01 a.m.

For nearly 30 years, the question of who killed Scruggs remained unanswered. Authorities have never publicly identified a suspect.

Now, a Wisconsin Rapids detective — with the help of a special state agent — is bringing new progress and hope that an arrest will be made in the 28-year-old unsolved homicide.

“In this particular case, with the work of our agency in partnership with (the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation), there’s a high level of confidence we can solve this case,” Wisconsin Rapids Police Chief Kurt Heuer said.

Wisconsin Rapids Police Detective Andy DeWitt took over the Scruggs case in March 2012, and state Department of Criminal Investigation Special Agent David Forsythe began assisting the Police Department with the investigation at about the same time.

They’re poring over old evidence, hoping that a fresh perspective and new technology provide a breakthrough.

A week after Scruggs’ wife found his body, authorities drained a pond near Pioneer Village, the mobile home park where Scruggs lived, in an unsuccessful attempt to find the murder weapon. Scruggs was killed when someone drove a butcher knife or something similar into his left lung, said William Voight, the Wood County coroner at the time. The pond police searched was about a block long, 50 to 60 feet wide and 4 to 6 feet deep.

The original investigators did a good job with the case, following the law enforcement practices of the day, Forsythe said. In 1985, authorities didn’t have access to tools such as DNA testing and the computer mapping programs currently used during investigations.

“Now, 28 years later, we can look at it with more sets of eyes,” Forsythe said.

(Page 2 of 2)

Any time a detective gets a case like the Scruggs homicide that has been worked on during the course of many years, he will reread everything in the file, DeWitt said.

At the time of the homicide, detectives had numerous “persons of interest,” Dewitt said. They couldn’t get the group narrowed down, and the trail went cold.

In the past year or so, DeWitt and Forsythe reviewed the files, interviewed people and further narrowed the list of possible suspects, DeWitt said.

“I think it’s safe to say since Dave (Forsythe) and I have continued this investigation, we are very confident this homicide was not a random act of violence committed by a stranger,” DeWitt said.

The Department of Criminal Investigation also assisted with analyzing phone records, time lines, charts and similar details, Forsythe said. The DCI cold case homicide review team uses special agents who have years of experience working on homicide cases to assist in local investigations.

“Andy (DeWitt) and I have a good relationship; it’s definitely a team effort,” Forsythe said.

There may be people who were afraid or just unwilling to tell police what they knew about the case in 1985 who might have a change of heart, Heuer said. Now would be the time to talk to law enforcement, he said.

“In all investigations, there’s a reluctance to come forward, whether it’s a fear of getting involved or not wanting to be part of the process,” Heuer said. “In cases like this, it’s very important for people to get past the reluctance and share what they know to bring resolution.”

Over the years, authorities continued talking with several people who have important information, DeWitt said. Those conversations continue today. People should feel comfortable stepping forward and helping to solve the case and give the Scruggs’ family closure, he said.